Most of these are well within reach, even moreso before the current bubble, if you make that kind of money. And an 8 minute BART ride from the city. Your not wanting to live there does not imply that somebody does not live there.
You're right, I forgot about the 0.8% of homes in the Bay Area smaller than most condos in an area where your chances of being involved in a crime are 1 in 6.
It's not made up. The US Census data is public to all. Number of households in West Oakland divided by the number of households in the entire Bay Area. If you look at just houses, the number is even worse.
Your example is beyond cherry-picked. The population of that region is only 21k. It is not remotely representative of the reality the vast majority of residents face.
